Baby Week is now a national initiative taking place from the 14 – 20 November each year and aims to bring sectors and services together to promote the best start in life. Over the past eight years, hundreds of local events have been held with thousands of attendees including parents, expectant parents, practitioners and professionals , and of course babies! Now, that’s all about to change as we welcome many new partners to the ‘Baby Week’ family!
Leeds – Bradford – Buckinghamshire – Calderdale – Cheshire & Merseyside – Coventry – Durham – Hull – Newcastle – Nottinghamshire – Sunderland – Torbay – York
Baby Week is really for anyone and everyone thinking about promoting the best start, sharing the importance of early childhood and we want it to be everyone’s business. Here at Baby Week, we’re all about reducing and removing barriers to accessing services, promoting what is available and ultimately ensuring every child has a childhood. Every parent and care giver should feel confident and know where to access support when needed. Society needs to be kinder and think ‘family’ approaches. Whether its employment policies or creating spaces and places that are child-friendly. It is those early experiences that shape who we are today. Whether you’re an early years expert, working in education, health or maternity, we know early years and supporting families is key and you have chosen a brilliant profession. However, our conference aimed at all professionals from all walks of life will leave you feeling empowered to see why we as a society today need to think differently about how we’re raising the future of tomorrow.

In Nottinghamshire, we are really excited to be joining in with Baby Week for the first time this year. We are looking forward to the below events and bringing parents, carers, partners and services together to focus on the importance of giving children the Best Start in Life.
– Lucy Hawkin (CPsychol), Nottinghamshire County Council
Why the Best Start?
The first few years of life mark the most rapid periods of growth and development for the human brain. The neural pathways that develop during this time lay the foundation so every early experience or lack of is important to note.
Together as a national partnership we chose the theme to ‘focus on the best start’. The best start for life is an ambition, we want the UK to be the best place to grow up and that starts with us. That’s exactly right, we want early intervention, we want community connections, we want every parent and carer to feel supported, confident and aware of the importance of early childhood and how we can make a difference in the early years to better the lives of children and young people growing up in our society.
Spotlight on Leeds Baby Week
Last year in Leeds, the theme was culture and identity and we had over 150 events or activities during Baby Week all free or low-cost so that expectant and new parents, under 5’s and professionals could really benefit from connections, experiences and learning through best practice events. From 26stalls at an opening event to early sensory experiences, we had many conversations and inspiring break throughs! From Beatrice Lee Knowles’s messy play art installation to the inspiring global parents q&a panel, we really listened and brought the professionals to the parents and carers in a friendly setting. Working with Child Friendly Leeds and the local authority partners, we promoted every library service, children centre and leisure centre who put on additional taster sessions for families to increase families using these services and encourage physical activity, early reading and the power of community.
First time being part of Baby Week Leeds and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Fantastic speakers and very informative. Great way of connecting with others too and learning about how other organisations have been working differently during the pandemic. Fantastic to see health inequalities being raised and featured in this event”
– Balvinder Dosanjh, Perinatal Mental Health Service Leeds




Get Involved
Baby Week is a week for everyone to come together from all sectors and celebrate all the amazing things that are happening, learn from what we can do better and of course, celebrate babies! There are many ways you can get involved in your local Baby Week. A few new resources and our 2024 communication pack will be shared very soon, so join in the conversation this year.

Resources
For each city and region taking part in Baby Week, we have bespoke logo’s and resources for organisations to join in the communication campaign. Details will be uploaded to the resources page mid-October.